posted 2005/08/29 at 23:04
Today was the first day of my comp class where I really got deep into the subject matter, and I guess I could call it my first real challenge as an instructor. I'd had them read about the idea of literacy for class today, but the textbook we're using (which I don't have a say over and which I don't really think is the best text we could use) only talked about literacy in terms of reading and writing English. I tried to get them to open their minds about different types of literacy by talking about things like computer literacy and cultural literacy, and I challenged them to think about other kinds of literacy, but I'm not sure it was quite sinking in.
I guess I still had some kind of romanticized notion that somehow I would speak a few words out of my mouth and suddenly all of my students would understand everything I was trying to get at. It took me a little while there to realize that things aren't going to be that easy, that I'm asking them to stretch their minds and that they're not going to instantaneously grasp everything I talk about. If anything, we'll still have most of the next class period to discuss this, as well as get to more interesting (and likely more challenging) notions of how different literacies are created, who gets to create literacies and why those people get to create them. (Critical teaching. Gotta love it.)
I've also got their first in-class writings to look at here, as well as a whole bunch of readings to do for my other classes (you know, the ones where I'm a student), so if you'll excuse me ...
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon